Herniated disc — causes, symptoms and prevention.

Those man­i­fes­ta­tions that accom­pa­ny an inter­ver­te­bral her­nia large­ly depend on its loca­tion or size. The min­i­mum lev­el of pres­sure on the spinal discs can lead to the fact that the pain will be neg­li­gi­ble. And in the event that the nerves “under­stand” that a her­nia has appeared, this can lead to slight numb­ness of the limbs, and in espe­cial­ly crit­i­cal cas­es, even to paral­y­sis. If an inter­ver­te­bral disc forms in the lum­bar region, it can lead to com­pres­sion of the sci­at­ic nerve. The pain from such a her­nia will be felt direct­ly from the gluteal mus­cles to the very foot. A her­nia in the upper spine will lead to severe pain along the inner thighs. Vio­la­tions that have arisen in the cer­vi­cal region affect the arms, shoul­ders, and also the front side of the chest. You can also high­light the cen­tral (medi­an her­nia), lead­ing to com­pres­sion of both the roots and the spinal cord itself.

A her­nia almost always appears as a result of an over­load of the spinal col­umn. More­over, this over­load can be per­ma­nent or one-time. Often, inter­ver­te­bral her­nias occur in peo­ple who are often forced to lift weights in an incline (it may be enough once, espe­cial­ly if the weights exceed all per­mis­si­ble norms).

As for the cen­tral her­nia, many hours of seden­tary work can lead to it, lead­ing to fatigue of the back mus­cles. These pro­fes­sions include pianists and office work­ers. Vibra­tion effects can also lead to the disc falling out — dri­vers are most at risk here. Poor pos­ture can also make the sit­u­a­tion worse.

There is a pos­si­bil­i­ty that the onset of the dis­ease is grad­ual rather than acute. In this case, the patient will feel peri­od­ic “back­ach­es” against the back­ground of con­stant aching pain in the back. These symp­toms can­not be ignored because the dis­ease pro­gress­es very quick­ly.

It is pos­si­ble to pre­vent lum­bar pain, and hence the appear­ance of an inter­ver­te­bral her­nia, if you ini­tial­ly main­tain a nor­mal weight and prop­er­ly equip the work­place with spe­cial devices. It is this fact that will sig­nif­i­cant­ly reduce the load on the spinal col­umn — both dur­ing seden­tary work and dur­ing move­ment. Phys­i­cal exer­cise, an active lifestyle, or at least morn­ing exer­cis­es should become the norm of your life. Use­ful sports are ten­nis, foot­ball, swim­ming and gym­nas­tics.

By the way, con­stant smok­ing makes the inter­ver­te­bral discs as sus­cep­ti­ble to injury as pos­si­ble. After all, a dai­ly dose of nico­tine cuts off the sup­ply of nutri­ents from the blood, as the blood ves­sels con­strict. Reg­u­lar con­sump­tion of alco­hol also leads to the same con­se­quences. As for nutri­tion, cere­als, veg­eta­bles and meat prod­ucts are prefer­able for a healthy spine. But the prod­ucts at risk include: spicy foods, sug­ar, salt, canned food and cof­fee.

In addi­tion, it is impor­tant to con­stant­ly main­tain the cor­rect pos­ture — not only when walk­ing or at work, but also dur­ing sleep. If you sleep on your back, place a small pil­low under your knees. When you sleep on your side, the same pil­low should be placed between your legs — this will allow the spine to remain in a neu­tral posi­tion. A soft mat­tress is not the best solu­tion for a com­fort­able sleep, but buck­wheat husk mat­tress and buck­wheat pil­low fit per­fect­ly.